05x11 - Baja Trophy Truck (Pt. 1)

[bunniefuu]

- [Narrator] This week on Monster Garage.

- Woo!

- [Narrator] Jesse James takes aim at the Baja 1000.

- The Baja will beat you.

- [Narrator] One of the longest, toughest,

and dirtiest races on the planet.

[crowd cheering]

- You're 500 miles in the middle of nowhere.

The margin for error is that thin.

[crowd yelling]

- [Narrator] Join us now as Jesse and his g*ng

of Maverick Mechanics rip, grind, and burn.

Transforming ordinary street vehicles into monster

machines in the, "Monster Garage."

♪ Monster monster garage

♪ Monster monster garage

♪ Monster monster garage

♪ Monster monster garage

♪ Monster monster garage

♪ Monster garage

This week's challenge, take this bare chassis

and build it into a full blown trophy truck

to race the Baja 1000.

The rules, the truck must appear to be stock

and the team can spend no more than 516,000

pesos for parts.

Jesse and the crew have seven days and nights.

On the first day, they design.

On the next five, they build.

And on the seventh day, they race.

If successful, the team walks away with a $4,000

set of Mac's hottest tools.

And they'll each get a 28 volt lithium ion combo kit

from Milwaukee Electric Tools.

But what exactly is the Baja 1000?

To understand one must first head down Mexico way

to Baja, California.

This hot and rugged finger of land

separates the Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Cortez.

Remote and enchanted,

the Baja Peninsula is known for its virgin coasts,

barren deserts, and picturesque seaside villages.

But once a year the peaceful magic is shattered

by the howling of monstrous machines tearing 1,000

miles through the very soul of Baja.

- The Baja 1000 is the race.

- It's a long treacherous race.

- This is still the longest point

to point race nonstop.

- It's really what off road racing

is all about, the Baja 1000.

- [Narrator] Top teams spend millions

preparing for this race

for our grand prize of only $16,000.

So why?

- I got to drive the very first Baja

and I'm telling you, it was like being hooked on something.

- You know I say it's a bad drug.

- This is something you can't shake.

Wish I could.

- Everybody wants to haul a*s through the desert.

That's it.

- Driving fast in the dirt is more

of a challenge than driving fast anywhere else

because everything's changing.

- The off-road race course itself is open

to traffic the whole time.

- We race right on the highway with the semi trucks.

- Ton of spectators along the course.

- Paved roads, dirt roads, rock roads, the beach.

- You have dogs chasing you.

- Booby traps.

- You have no food.

You do not stop.

- Special breed of person

and a special vehicle to be able to handle the abuse

and get from point A to point B in one piece.

- [Narrator] A special breed of person like Jesse James.

- I'm a little bit scared of it

and a little bit apprehensive

and a little bit, you know,

in my gut I can feel that like

it's pretty dangerous.

- It's almost been every 1.000

that there has been a fatality.

- It's dangerous but it's exhilarating.

- But that makes the bill good.

If I'm not a little bit scared, it's boring.

- Everybody that does it has their own story

and it'll be an adventure out of this world.

There's nothing like the Baja 1000.

- [Narrator] The countdown to Baja starts now.

[glass shattering]

Day one, enter the design team.

Billy Gasper has won the Baja 1000 two times,

and builds top of the line trophy trucks.

Paul Perso is an electrical contractor who's been building

and racing Baja trucks for more than 20 years.

Tony Baratza is an artist

and designer from San Jacinto, California.

- What's up man?

- How you doing? Jesse. - Billy Gasper.

- How you doing?

- Paul Perso.

- Hey, what's up Paul?

- Jess, Tony Baratza.

- Hey, what's up Tony? - Nice meet you.

- So cool, I finally talked him into letting

us do a trophy truck.

I like it 'cause it's a total half million dollar deal,

you know, to really build one of these and do it right.

- To build one right, to support it.

This is a huge challenge

and it does take a lot of pit support vehicles.

- [Narrator] The Baja 1000 course

is spread out over several hundred

desolate miles.

So vehicle support is a logistical nightmare.

In addition to pit stops every 100 miles or so,

crews of Chase vehicles leapfrog

around the Baja Peninsula to intercept their race car

with any needed assistance.

- Just as much a race for all the chase people, I believe,

as it is, as the drivers, you know what I mean?

- Yeah. It's kinda like, "Monster Garage," you know,

as a total show that's a team aspect

and it's a team getting the car bill.

And then it's usually up to me when it comes to racing it

or testing it by myself.

And I don't think this is like that.

This is like a team from start to finish because it can't-

- Everybody wins, you know?

- And plus this separates this from all those other

shows that are on TV.

You know, where they're gonna like customize

someone's Chevelle or something.

They're not gonna try this.

- [Paul] Oh, there's no way they throw down for that.

- Yeah. Plus it's dangerous, too.

You know, you can get k*lled down there.

I like the odds of this though

because no one, not a lot

of people think we'll make it.

We got the hard part, which is a big hurdle across

that we got a pretty decent chassis

that's most of the way done.

Yeah, wat a pain in the finding that chassis.

- [Paul] Was it?

- Yeah, I mean there's none.

Basically it's just like rigging a boat.

I mean we got an empty hull.

And so electrical drive train, you know,

aligning everything and setting it up so it's, you know,

it's not like a regular monster garage car.

This is something that's gotta go 1,000 hard miles,

- [Tony] Real hard miles.

- Yeah. I think Jegs is working on a motor

around 700 horsepower

tr*nny, you know, find a good strong built Turbo 400

and I think we should get two

and have a backup one.

- Oh most definitely. Want a spare tr*nny,

spare drive shaft.

- Figure out the rear end and everything

if we're gonna get, you know, do a sheet metal one,

all the electronics, you know, as far

as gauges, instrumentation, GPS.

What size fuel cell does it have to have in it?

- It all depends on, I mean the motor, I mean what kind

of mileage we're gonna get out of it, you know,

so you're gonna probably need at least a 70,



- Well cool guys, I think that's it.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] The raw chassis will need

a turbo 400 transmission powered

by a 700 horsepower V8 motor.

Add to that, a super stout rear axle

and an extreme off-road suspension,

with the latest shock absorbing technology.

The whole truck must be wired and cooled

and b*llet proofed to take the punishment

of 1,000 miles of racing in the dirt.

[upbeat music]

Day two.

This project is so big,

the Baja Build will need more than just the normal five men.

It'll take 10 of the best builders in the business.

Rick Geyser of Phoenix, Arizona runs Geyser Brothers,

an off road industry leader.

Danny Porter builds championship trophy trucks out

of Riverside, California.

Turbo Tom Geebis of San Diego, California has won five

Baja 1000s as a co-rider.

Joey Dovinian of Sylmar, California

is a race truck wiring expert.

Jason Campbell is an off-road specialist

from Huntington Beach, California.

Paul Michelle is a trophy truck crew chief

in El Cajon, California.

Jimmy Wietzel out of Santee, California

builds high-end off-road trucks.

John DeVillier is the founder

of the Wizard Fabrication Schools

in Riverside, California.

[John grunting]

Paul Perso and Billy Gasper stay for the build.

The 10 talented hombres gather to get their orders.

- This is probably gonna be the shortest start off thing

'cause you guys pretty much know what we're doing right.

Gotta get a mountain of parts.

I think we have everything dialed in except for a motor.

I emailed Jegs this morning so I'm waiting.

He's seeing what he he can find.

So I just told him it needs to be all aluminum, you know,

six or 700 horsepower.

And then I think, did someone find a rear end?

- I think we got a rear end coming.

- Alright, cool.

Let's get after it.

- [Narrator] Without a word of discussion,

the team explodes into a frenzy of activity.

The first order of business is to attack the weak points

of this outdated 10-year-old frame.

- It definitely needs some strength modification up front.

Things have just gotten a lot faster.

Things need to be a lot beefier,

a lot stronger, a lot heavier.

Tires have gotten bigger.

Motors have gotten more horsepower.

The shocks work a lot better,

which allows the car to go faster.

[tools clattering]

- We gotta make some room for the tall guy,

so his head doesn't stick out the roof like Dino.

- [Narrator] Turbo Geebis will be riding

with Jesse in the race.

He starts working out the ergonomics of the cab,

so he and Jesse will survive the hundreds

of kidney busting miles.

- Well you'd like your leg room as as much as possible

so you can extend your leg once you start cramping,

'cause after six, seven, eight hours you start cramping.

- 17 hours, 24 hours.

- Actually once 10 goes by then it doesn't matter.

[both laughing]

- Tom is a veteran Baja co-rider

who does whatever it takes

to keep his driver in the race.

- I rode with Jimmy Johnson, rode with Larry Raglin

and we got five Baja 1000 wins,

which is a a great accomplishment.

We must finish Baja to win Baja

and I finished and won a lot of Bajas.

- This is harder to build a truck

to go 1,000 miles fast than it is to build a flying car.

We know it's hard because everybody

we told we were gonna do it

went, "Oh, whoa, whoa."

- [Crew Member] Keep turning. - Can you quiet down

there a little bit?

Okay, just have a little seat there.

We're going for head clearance.

- We're gonna leave this. Are we gonna-

- [Crew Member] This will just be flattened over.

- Yeah, we want this as low as possible.

You gotta be able to see over the hood

and then when you come up to a rise,

you gotta be able to-

- Yeah.

- See what's going on. Cool.

- [Narrator] John DeVillier sets up a fab shop in the garage

and begins making protective body panels.

[cheerful music]

This truck will run 37 inch tires,

a step up from the old days.

- This truck is designed to run a smaller tire than this.

That's why I went... This one's not fitting.

- [Narrator] Paul Perso has been racing

and chasing in Baja for years.

- The safest places to be at that race is in the race truck.

The chassis go through a lot.

They go through as much as the driver does,

you know, get where they need to get

as all the other traffic

and the locals and it's pretty crazy down there.

We only need about a half inch.

- We probably should cut this bar up

- [Narrator] As the other Paul cuts the rear bumper out,

Tom and Billy become concerned.

- That was kind of a structure of the car here.

- Yeah, exactly. - This was a

pretty good structure.

- Exactly, because it strengthens

up this whole back end.

- Yeah.

- And you need that structure

and I don't think he looked at that

before he started cutting it.

Paul, what's your plan on the back there?

- Well, we just changed gears.

- You just went ahead and cut the whole thing off.

Got some major structural point going across there.

All those arms are pivoting on that thing

with the shocks and everything.

- He just told me to cut the...

You wanted the whole thing.

- No, I showed you how we were gonna cut the 45

and you said, "Well I'll just cut it up."

- Well we're already screwing it up.

- Geez. This right here is major structural.

- Yeah.

- I mean- - This is gonna

bend out, too,

but it's got that X down in there

so it's not gonna go anywhere.

- [Crew Member] Yeah.

- You gonna do a double two back in

and you can plate in there?

- Yeah, it's just gonna go down a touch,

then come back apart-

- Do a couple these numbers,

you know, not all the way around.

- Yeah, that would be fine.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Jason fabricates a new extended bumper

to fit around the spare.

The team believes the new design won't sacrifice structure.

Tom and Billy hope the decision won't come

back to haunt them.

- [Jesse] We got our day cut out for us tomorrow.

It's gonna be a big day.

If we get all the stuff

that we're supposed to be getting.

Okay.

- [Narrator] Instead of spinning their wheels

waiting for parts,

the team stops for the day

to store up some sleep.

"Monster Garage," factoid.

The Baja Peninsula was formed by the movement

of tectonic plates along the San Andreas fault.



Cabo San Lucas would've been

a suburb of Port of Vallarta.

♪ Monster monster garage

Day three, the A team enters the garage ready for action.

- Idiot lights are gonna probably be

wherever the volt gauge is.

- [Narrator] Tom and Joey map out the center control panel.

- Okay, no switches on the bottom here.

No switches on underneath the GPS

because it's gonna sit flat on the tube.

- Yeah, I want it to sit flat.

- Right now, pretty much laying out the sketch

for the slow driver dashboard.

Laying out where the gauges are gonna go,

where the switches are gonna go.

- [Narrator] Because of the vast scope of this project,

the builders brought their RVs to the garage

so they could work through the night.

But wiring guru, Joey Dovinian,

always works out of his truck.

- Can do a whole car right outta

this little eight foot space.

I go to Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico all the time.

But basically I started out of the back of a Toyota truck,

a whole bunch of little parts

and boxes full of just hundreds of little odds and ends.

And then I bought a 40 foot semi-truck

that is half shop, half living space.

Anywhere where there's dirt, I pretty much go.

It's just like putting together a huge puzzle.

This is the passenger side dashboard

and that's gonna get to be a lot bigger than this.

When it's all said and done, it might be this big around.

I think we're all gonna be very spent at the end of this.

- [Narrator] Jason Campbell's putting his own rear end

on the line for this project.

- The rear end is on its way.

It's actually for my race truck.

I'm pulling it and ordering a new one for it.

So it's a Ford nine inch rim full floater.

You know, Jack of all trades, master of none.

I was pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering

and I got to like my third year in that

and my current business partner was like,

"Hey, let's start up a business."

And I was like, "No, I'm gonna go to school.

"No, I'm gonna go to school."

And one day I was just kind

of looking at what engineers make

and how much schooling they have to go through

and I just said, "You know what?"

"Forget it. Let's just give this a shot."

A couple thousand dollars and a couple welders

and we got a shop and went to town.

- [Narrator] Jason's Ford nine inch axle

is delivered to the shop,

but Danny Porter is concerned about its girth.

- That's a tiny Tim there.

- [Crew Member] You don't think it'll work?

- To race in the truck?

I don't think it'll go if it

doesn't have 37 as flying axles.

Period.

Pro trucks only have 500

horsepower and they make it.

They barely make it.

That little two thing will look like

a U-bolt when it's done.

Just the housing that I build takes me 10 days just

to build the housing and you're not

even half that far along after 10 days.

- [Narrator] Paul Michelle shows us

what a real trophy truck axle

is supposed to look like.

- This stuff just takes so much abuse.

You think dropping a 5,000 pound piece of metal on a rock,

you know the rock always wins.

- [Narrator] Paul starts pulling strings to try

to find a bigger rear end.

- Called up one of the guys I deal with

and he happened to have everything to build

basically exactly what we need.

- [Narrator] With a full size trophy truck axle

in the works, Jason can keep his little Ford nine inch.

Keeping everything cool while running

through the desert at 100 miles per hour

is a real challenge.

- Ron Davis, radiator.

It's gonna go across the back of the chassis.

All the air is coming through the cab and exit

and it's in this big surface of wind.

- [Narrator] Every system has its own radiator,

engine coolant, transmission coolant,

and even engine oil.

- [Tom] There you have it.

- [Crew Member] Perfect.

- [Narrator] Tom is determined to run a clean race.

- Okay, this is a filter.

Filters the air coming into your

helmet, comes in the sides.

This plugs into your helmet.

You get fresh air coming inside so you don't have

to breathe the dust, so it's filtered air basically.

- [Narrator] Scott Steinberger rolls up in his trophy truck

to drop off some communications gear.

Even though he'll be racing against Jesse in Baja,

he's still helping out with the project.

- DCI comes through.

- This actually used to belong to The Terrible Herbs,

who are a big team in off road.

It has a unique dual cantilever suspension system

that really takes the big bumps good,

and most people run one bypass shock in the rear.

This has two four inch bypass shocks in the rear.

- This thing's cool.

- Well hey, welcome to the choppy chuck class.

- Yeah, well we're not there yet.

Almost there.

- Radio, it's like a PCI intercom.

Why don't I just take all this and just throw it on there

and wherever it sticks is where it's gonna be.

- [Narrator] Jesse gets settled in the c*ck so the rack

and pinion steering system can be set up.

- That should be good.

- I just wanna measure.

[cheerful music]

Just building the steering shaft

and steering column for the truck.

This rack and pinion with a ram assist on it.

And it's just simple.

I mean it eliminates more moving parts.

When you have a steering box, you have to have some sort

of sliders and they're just,

it ends up being a ton more parts

and in a front engine truck like this,

you start running outta room.

- [Narrator] Paul Michelle worked his way up

to crew chief for Coin Motorsports.

- I hate to say it, but I almost missed the times when I

didn't know as much, 'cause it was more fun.

Now you're not satisfied

with just going out and having a good time.

If you don't do well, it's almost frustrating.

I've had one day off in the last,

probably five months.

- [Narrator] Nine time Baja 1000 winner,

Walker Evans, shows up to find out what kind

of wheels he'll be donating to the cause.

- I just brought some samples down here to see what we need.

- Perfect. - We'll build you

whatever we need, okay?

- Let's bring 'em on in.

- That's one good thing about the Walker Evans wheel.

It'll fit most anything.

- [Crew Member] Yep.

- You're gonna have quite the ride here.

- Should be pretty good.

- You gonna be able to hang onto it?

- Hell yeah. - Hell yeah.

Have you been down practicing

or pre-running or have you done any of-

- Nope.

- You know where you're even driving it to?

- I know where I'm driving it to.

[both talk over each other]

Yeah, San Felipe and back.

- Okay.

- What's it like crossing that finish line?

- It's the greatest feeling there is.

It's a wonderful achievement,

but before you get to that finish line,

I mean you've gotta put your heart and soul into it.

You've got to eat it, drink it, sleep it, and live it.

- [Narrator] Metal wizard John DeVillier

lays out the dashboard.

- It's just a co-pilot's dash.

He's gonna keep all of his instrument gauges, a GPS unit.

There is no school teaching this craft.

And this is a form of craft, it's an art.

So I decided it was time

to start teaching my skill to other people.

So I founded and opened up

The Wizard Schools of Fabrication.

In doing this, I found that there's a tremendous amount

of people out there that have skills that are just locked up

and through our course, it's a hands-on A to Z course.

We teach 'em to weld to the finished product.

[upbeat rock music]

- [Narrator] The 700 horsepower motor arrives

courtesy of Jeg's.

- [Crew Member] Look at that.

Woo!

- Hitting it.

- It's not hitting it.

- This thing's bitchin'.

- It's got the-

- [indistinct], no pump, no water pump.

- [Crew Member] Okay, we gotta get that stuff coming.

- Yeah, they're sending all the all that stuff.

Test run, too.

- [Narrator] The crew wastes no time

feeding the V8 into the power starred chassis.

- It almost looks like we go back.

Come on in, come on in, come on in, come on in.

We hope.

- She's getting some bolts in.

I think it'll be fine for the...

- [Crew Member] Yeah.

- [Narrator] As the motor is bolted in place,

the B&M transmission is delivered.

- Transmission!

Woo! It's here. Oh yeah.

Look it's Christmas.

Ooh, pretty.

- [Crew Member] Got the wrong rear oak too.

- [Narrator] When the truck leaps over bumps,

the plunge of the drive shafts

could destroy the transmission.

- A drive shaft in some vehicles slips in and out.

- This piece will actually move in and out, in and out.

- The one we want is a solid one

and then the slip is in the drive line itself.

It might get two inches of plunge.

So we don't want it shoving against this

because that seal will fail and then the oil will pour out

- [Crew Member] And then the transmission.

- She goes away.

Then we're trying to figure it out.

Well then we put number two in out in the middle of nowhere

on your back in the dirt.

Bad thing.

- [Crew Member] No fun.

- Takes too long.

- [Narrator] To save the tr*nny from the abuses

of off-roading, Paul steals a fixed yolk

tail housing from his spare transmission.

- [Paul] This one slipped and this one's held.

[rock music]

Spun, and so.

- [Narrator] Now the crew can kick into high gear,

bolting the new tr*nny onto the motor.

- [Tom] Annie, how about the back?

- [Crew Member] So that's your job.

We got the front, Tom.

- Up in the back.

Up in the back. No.

What the going on here? Okay, there we go.

Fluid's coming out all over me.

Put the bolts in.

- [Crew Member] Dude, the rack's centered.

- Oh dude, we're looking good there.

Once again, I think we're out of parts.

- [Narrator] Competitors, Billy Gasper

and Rick Geyser, get a parts list together.

Racing for over 15 hours without stopping requires lots

of specialized equipment like a catheter.

This device provides relief

for the driver without losing valuable time.

- You have catheters you put on.

- Somebody's, "Oh, the radiator's leaking.

"The radiator's leaking.

"We're getting warm water in my ear."

- Oh, shut it off, shut it.

It's leaking, leaking, something off.

- And Greg just in there laughing.

That's not radiator water.

- Yeah, he's smelling it.

[all laughing]

- He's like, "Hey, okay."

- Well you got a big list.

Oh, his list is mondo bondo.

- [Crew Member] Big list. We got Friday.

- [Narrator] With most of the drive line in place,

the team heads out to their trailers

for a few hours of sleep.

"Monster Garage," factoid.

The Baja 1000 has been an annual event since 1967,

except in 1974 when the International Oil embargo

forced its cancellation.

♪ Monster monster garage

Day four.

It's 7AM and the garage manager, Brian Conroy,

provides a wake up call

for the builders free of charge.

[sirens wailing]

- Blah!

- Yo!

- [Camera Man] Get up.

- You guys suck.

- [Camera Man] Get up.

- You guys really suck.

- [Narrator] After an unpleasant awakening,

the team idols into the garage.

- [Crew Member] Let's go. Let's get her done!

- Let's roll. There's still a lot of parts

that we need to get.

Our main fab at this point is to install the rear end.

Besides the body, the body will be last.

- [Narrator] Jimmy Wietzel specializes

in building luxury trucks

for off-road reconnaissance.

- You need to go drive on the course in advance so they,

you know, you pre-run it to know

where the rocks are, the holes, the ditches

and ideally most of your big guys would like

to pre-run and be comfortable.

Heater, AC, power windows.

We essentially nowadays build a trophy truck

with a steel cab and leather interior

and the DVD TVs, and stuff like that.

- [Narrator] Jesse's ciphering out the geometry

of the enormous gas tank

by tacking a skeleton in place.

He'll use this frame

as a guide when he tigs together

the 70 gallon aluminum tank.

[rock music]

- So I am gonna go make this over in my shop faster.

There's too many people in here.

Later.

- [Narrator] Paul Michelle heads to Desert Specialties

where his friend Doug Peterson is finishing up

the rear axle housing.

Paul brings the housing back

to the garage while it's still hot.

- We got axles and everything with it and tubs.

- Yeah. he's taking apart his display rear end

to give us all the parts.

- Sweet.

The rear end that we got from Desert Specialties,

he's taking some more pieces apart to get us the drive hubs,

the drive plates and the axles.

We're gonna put the mounts up here and the mounts down here.

And caliper brackets and we're ready to go.

This thing is direct drive from the axles

to the rear end housing.

So when you go around corners that chirps 'cause, yeah,

[chirping] sounds cool.

It'll sound cool when we pull it outta here.

On Saturday morning.

- [Narrator] Danny Porter started Porter Race Cars in 1995.

- I raced for the first 10 years.

I won the score overall championship in 1995.

We beat Ivan Stewart

and then eventually hired Bill full-time

and we built a trophy truck in 2000 that won eight races

and won two championships in a row

and the trophy truck thing took off from there.

- [Narrator] Back in the garage, the team is treated

to a cavalcade of parts.

- There it is. - Right on.

- Oh, the pretty part.

Oh nice.

Nice stopping power right there. Look at that.

I think we got some calipers in this big box here.

- [Narrator] Turbo Tom mounts the meats

on the Walker Evans rims.

These rims feature bead locks which sandwich the tire bead

between two plates of metal.

This keeps the tire from ripping off the rim

when the truck barrels over bumps and rocks.

With the tires locked,

the wires are shocked.

- This is all of the switches

and circuit breakers that control

all the components on

the chassis harness.

Radiator fans, breakers for the race radio,

all the communications, brake lights, ignition system,

pretty much everything that's on the car that needs

to have electricity.

Here, let's put this in there real quick.

[rock music]

- [Narrator] The wizard rolls a beat into the body armor.

- We use this for strengthening the sheet metal,

keeps the panel from rattling when they're driving

off road at high speeds.

It doesn't sit there and wobble, tightens up the metal.

- Well now we don't got no more worries.

This is like a key ingredient to going fast

and surviving the Baja 1000.

Now we're gonna bolt them on.

- [Narrator] Rick runs Geyser Brothers,

a premier trophy truck manufacturer.

- I have five brothers

and every one of us raced something sometime some way.

We got nine trophy trucks that we built.

My brother, Jeff, does most of the designing.

We got mud on our brain

and we've just stuck with what we know all our life.

Let's go, let's check it out.

[rock music]

- Oh, bolt! Bolt!

- [Crew Member] Yeah, we need to check the coil.

[rock music]

We got good shocks and they fit.

- Good?

- Thank you very much, Brett King.

- No problem, no problem.

- [Narrator] Paul reinforces the axle housing

to make sure it can take the punishment it deserves.

- Well we got our finisher in housing here.

All gussied it up. Ready to go in the truck.

[rock music]

- [Crew Member] So let's take these.

[rock music] [tools clattering]

I got pressure on the bottom, Paul.

Okay, so then hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it.

Watch your fingers.

There we go.

[rock music] [tools clattering]

- All right, how come you guys are all watching

one guy put a hub on?

- [Crew Member] This is exciting.

- Yeah, this is really high tech.

- [Jesse] No, I mean, we got a lot of to do.

And you guys, just-

- [Crew Member] How many hubs have you put on today?

- We need to work on the rear end.

- [Crew Member] This is something different.

- Hey, well we need to drop it out.

- [Narrator] After Billy stokes the fire

under the team's rear bumper,

they connect the complex rear suspension together

with a series of heim joints.

- [Crew Member] Right on dude.

[tools whirring]

Right there?

- [Crew Member] Yeah. Right on that part.

- [Narrator] With the axle installed,

the team jacks the suspension up and down

so Danny can measure the full extent of the wheel travel.

- Your average pickup truck probably has about six

inches of wheel travel.

We've got about 28 right here.

So 22 inches more wheel travel than your average truck.

The more wheel travel you have,

the more that wheel can go like this

without hitting your bumps top here

or your droop stop here

and upsetting the balance of the chassis.

- [Narrator] The extreme articulation afforded by all

that wheel travel allows the truck

to glide at high speeds over belt high bumps

and deep gullies.

The truck's body stays level while the wheels move up

and down to absorb all the impact.

Baja Racing champ, Billy Gasper, puts in the taillights.

- Turning left, turning left.

These yellow lights are for safety. They're caution lights.

And every car has to have them on.

If they do go out at any time that they come to us,

checkpoint, you can't go further

until you get 'em working again.

Me and my brother, we drive together when we race.

We've won it two times in our class, the Baja Bug class.

I mean, tears, I get goosebumps right now

just thinking about it.

I mean, when I drove across the finish line

and to see my brother there, you know,

dragging me everywhere growing up, you know,

seeing him at the finish line

and you could just see the emotion in him too, you know,

little brother, you know, bringing it home.

- [Jesse] We got a pulse, I think. Hold on.

- She might be ready. She might be ready to fire.

- [Narrator] Gas is added to a temporary fuel cell

and it's time for the moment of truth.

[engine revving]

- Keep going.

[engine revving]

Fire in the hole. Woo!

[engine rumbling]

[crew members cheering]

- [Crew Member] Fire in the hole!

- That fired right up.

- You guys rock, dude.

- Ow.

- [Crew Member] Fire in the hole.

- That's always a good sign to have the motor kick over.

All the fluids went down.

So that means that all the coolers are filling up.

[pinata explodes]

- [Narrator] This team's motor is running

and they still have two days to dial in this desert demon.

- [Crew Member] Dude, that was a good one.

♪ Monster monster garage

- [Narrator] Day five.

Diaz Amigos have their drive line in good shape,

but there's still a lot of body work, wiring,

and plumbing to do.

- We're gonna bring the body in this morning.

We're gonna bolt it all together just for mock-up reasons.

We'll set it on the truck, see what we gotta cut

and grind and fit.

- [Narrator] They bring in the fiberglass

Geyser brothers body panels

and start to fit them in place.

- We're gonna bolt it all together

and then we're gonna all pick it up

and we're gonna put it over the top of it

and then we're gonna see what it's gonna take.

- Watch out for that tire right there.

- We'll cut some of this off.

- It'll fit somehow. It's only fiberglass.

[upbeat music]

- We're just having to widen the roof a little bit.

So we'll put a piece of sheet metal in here

to correct width the cross and they can flip it over

with this fiberglass back on top of it.

So we're just gonna modify this body to fit.

We'll scab some pieces on.

- Some little ones that work.

- Yeah. - Okay.

- [Narrator] Jesse has finished the massive fuel tank,

but now he has to mount it securely enough

to handle more than 400 pounds of fuel sloshing around.

- [Crew Member] Need to come back this way.

- How's that look over there?

- Yeah, you're clear,

- It's gonna clear the swing of that U joint?

- Got a lot of room.

- [Crew Member] All right.

- Hey, who made this?

I thought you guys were serious Fabricators.

Some arts and craft stuff.

- [Crew Member] Look at this one.

This is Tom [laughing].

Dinner trick.

- That's gonna look good

gnawing a hole in his shin

when we're flipping end over end.

[all laughing]

- [Crew Member] Palm tree in the back of his leg.

- [Narrator] Baja racing legend, Ivan Iron Man Stewart,

got wind of the project

and came down to see it for himself.

- How's it going Ivan?

- You gonna try and finish

or you gonna try and beat all them guys?

- [Crew Member] He's gonna win it in the first 100 miles.

- Yeah.

- See, I don't know. See how it works.

I'm gonna go for it. 80%.

- 80%. There you go. That'll get you in the winner circle.

If you can do 80% with the experience

that you have, you'd be in the winner

circle without making any mistakes, you agree?

- [Crew Member] Oh yeah.

- [Ivan] But yeah, this is the history.

The history of the Baja 1000.

- [Crew Member] That's cool, man. There you go.

I think it's harder to build a Baja 1000 car

to finish than it is a flying car.

- Oh, I'll bet.

Well the thing with 1000 is being if you're disciplined,

more than anything, being disciplined.

- Pace yourself. - Pace yourself

and don't let the guys behind you

or the guys in front of you,

you know, upset your [indistinct].

And that's what they'll do, you know?

- Well, cool man. - Okay.

I'll let you go buddy.

Great news for you, thank you buddy.

Appreciate you having me on the show.

- All thanks man. - Okay, see you down there.

I'll be rooting for you.

- All right, man.

He stole my pen.

- [Narrator] Freebie, freebie, freebie,

zip, zero, nada.

Now Jesse has to figure out

how to route eight exhaust pipes

through the labyrinth of this chassis.

- I mean, you might have to put the muffler

and just dive it out right there.

- That's what I want to do.

- Okay.

- Simple. - Yeah.

[rock music]

- May not fit.

- Push it on.

[rock music] [tools clattering]

- [Narrator] The team is trying to anticipate

every possible problem.

- That white bottle has five or 10 pounds of hay lawn in it

and we're plumbing it throughout the car

and it has a control.

See that safe craft tag up there?

If the car catches on fire, you pull the pin

and it releases the thing through all these little nozzles

where you strategically place throughout the car

where there's a good chance of a fire

and one up that'll spray the occupants of the car just

to keep any fire down so it gives 'em time

to get outta the car and hopefully saves the car.

[cheerful music]

[pinata explodes]

[crew laughing]

- Hey, where these go? - Oh, poor Godzilla.

[laughing]

- Donkeys.

[laughing]

- [Crew Member] You can't k*ll me.

- [Narrator] Under the watchful gaze of Donkey-zilla,

the team makes their exit.

Tomorrow is the last build day.

[cheerful music]

The team is rocking this project so far.

- I've never been there before.

- [Narrator] But will the truck be ready

for Jesse's heavy right foot on Friday?

- If you gotta try to jump it,

the bumper's gonna hit the dirt first and clean it in.

- That's one reason-

- I know it.

And what do you do?

♪ Monster monster garage

- [Narrator] Day six.

This Mexican monster is almost complete,

but there's still body work, wiring

and exhaust to finish up.

[rock music] [tools whirring]

With the body and hood trimmed to fit the truck,

Danny can make a front bumper.

[rock music] [tools whirring]

- Freaking perfect.

These are a light force HID light,

which is a high intensity discharge.

It's crazy how good these lights are.

I mean, if you have enough of 'em on here,

which we're gonna put about eight of 'em on,

it's like driving in the daytime.

- [Narrator] As Danny bolts the HID lights on the bumper,

his partner, Billy, has an issue.

- Look how far out that thing is for the nose wheels.

Dude, he's gonna try to jump that thing.

- [Crew Member] Huh?

- He's gonna try to jump it

and the bumper's gonna hit the dirt

first and clean the-

- That's one reason- - I know but dude

what do you do?

You can't just...

So the first thing you hit is-

- Hey his lights aren't gonna work

if he cleans the whole front bumper off either.

- The first thing you're gonna hit is the light.

- Well, what we call our approach angle is basically the

attack of the front of the vehicle in relationship

to the front tire.

As the car goes down in suspension,

obviously anything past the front tire is gonna get

that much closer to the ground when it goes down.

So because of the bumper being so far past the center

of the tire, the front of the truck doesn't have

to go very far down

to get your lever way out here, down into the ground.

- [Narrator] To keep the front bumper

from planting in the dirt,

sending Jesse on a high speed somersault.

- Hold this up, yeah.

[tool whirring]

- [Narrator] The team cuts down the hood

so the bumper can be shortened.

[rock music]

- [Billy] Hey, they make a big radius right here

and down and over the trimming.

- [Narrator] Billy seems to have an issue

with everything this morning.

He gets Tom to reroute the radiator hoses.

- While they were getting the fuel tank done,

the lines got rerouted. Not the way we do it.

This is rubbing against the fan

and the other side is almost closed.

- [Narrator] As a Baja veteran,

Billy knows there's no cutting corners.

- Little things will bite you in the butt

and you know, could put you outta the race.

You lose your water. Yeah, you're gonna fry the motor.

- [Tom] 'Cause he worries about me.

- Worry about my big buddy Tom.

You know, he's gonna be sitting in that thing.

I don't want him stuck in the middle of Baja all night.

- [Narrator] Wade from Drive Lines Incorporated

brings in the drive shaft, but Paul Michelle

is afraid the team is getting another

kind of shaft.

- Why isn't there the rubber thing in it?

- What happens with this rubber,

it actually helps the ride.

- That's gonna explode.

- All right. We haven't had any problems with it.

- Why are the yolks not matched?

- We realize that that would also create a vibration.

And if we offset it a little bit, like in the old Camaros,

they did that from the factory.

- Where's the bolts for the strap?

Oh, these here.

They'll go through and the nuts on the backside.

- They're five sixteens. That's not even a-

- Okay, we haven't had any issues.

It helps make a smoother ride for the guys in the cabin.

I've never been there before.

- [Crew Member] Me neither.

Before you get started mounting that one,

why don't you put this one in?

'Cause I wouldn't [indistinct] with that.

[all laughing]

Thanks bro.

Does that look better?

- Jerk. [crew laughing]

Hey, Rick.

[indistinct]

Here's the real one.

I didn't know what to say when

you handed me that thing.

Every single thing about drive lines

that I know quarterish bolts.

I'm just going man, I'm so-

- Don't worry, I'm calling him.

- But what's impressive is every single thing

that was wrong with that drive line,

you caught it, every single thing.

- One more, it wasn't tight.

- [Crew Member] No he tightened that. He did it.

- Okay.

- [Narrator] Get her done.

[rock music] [tools clattering]

- You know I've never seen it done this way before,

but anything's possible.

All of the trucks we build, every single one of 'em,

they all go through the middle of the truck.

[rock music]

- All right, hurry up now I'm waiting on you guys.

- [Crew] Aw.

- Nah, you know, let's go. We're gonna work.

We're gonna work 20 hours every day.

- [Narrator] Joey is finally done with the wiring harness,

but the serpentine loom still has

to be installed in the truck.

[rock music] [tools whirring]

The body is put on for good.

[rock music]

More lights are placed on the roof.

- No amount of light is enough.

There's always a spot out there where you can't see enough

and that's the one you're gonna get the rock.

- Looks ugly.

We don't really like 'em, but when you hit a big

bush, it knocks it in.

So then you just push it back out.

- [Narrator] This monster is ready for re-animation.

Joey supplies the spark.

Now all she needs is fuel.

[rock music]

With the motor running, the steering is tested.

It looks like this truck is almost ready

to hit the dirt ahead of schedule.

Jesse is impressed.

[engine rumbles]

- I think I'm gonna keep it that way.

This thing's got like a mile of space in it man.

I'm used to my car.

[engine rumbles]

[rock music]

- [Narrator] Jesse tears through the concrete canyons

of Long Beach looking for some dirt.

[engine rumbles] [rock music]

[crew cheering]

- Yeah baby!

[rock music]

[engine rumbles]

[rock music]

[crew cheering]

- Woo!

Yeah!

- That thing's like a Cadillac, man.

[crew cheering] [rock music]

We got it, baby!

- That thing just cruises.

Good job, man.

So you guys want some tools?

- [Crew Member] Yes sir.

- Cool.

- [Narrator] Through blood, sweat, and steel,

this team has created in five days

what mortals take a year to make.

But Jesse's still has a lot dirty

road ahead of him.

- What a great build team.

I couldn't wait to get here every day

and work with these guys.

These guys are so talented, you know?

And I'm like a sponge for that.

We look like The Village People.

[crew laughing]

Good job, man.

- Thanks.

- So Mac Tools, Milwaukee Power Tool Kit.

Built a trophy truck man.

- [Crew] Yeah.

- Four and a half days.

Good job guys.

[crew laughing]

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Build cost tally,

trophy truck frame $45,000,

parts $48,686,

freebies $21,575,

total $115,261.

[upbeat music]

Coming at ya next week it's time for Jesse

to put the trophy truck through its paces.

- That road was fun.

- [Narrator] [indistinct] Takes on the legendary Baja 1000.

- We have all this open space.

No Americans and no locked gates.

[upbeat music]

- Tom pissed his pants already today.

It's a whole lot of jumps, bumps,

cusps, and danger.

[upbeat music]

[engine rumbling]

- [Radio] Please come here as soon as you can.

I'm in some trouble.

- Rough man.

[chiming music]